Fare thee well (My own true love)
by abbyli
Summary: Bonnie Bennett cannot save everyone. But she is sure going to try. bamon, bonnie centric


**entitled: **Fare thee well (My own true love)

**summary: **Bonnie Bennett knows that she can't save everyone. But she is sure going to try. au

**characters: **bonnie/damon, stefan, caroline, katherine, alaric, some lexi (NO ELENA)

**rating: **this is rated t but there are some mature elements along the way.

**warnings: **Could be a trigger warning for PTSD. I am not familiar with how the military works so any mistakes in here are my own fault.

**disclaimer: **I own absolutely nothing.

**notes: **This idea was presented to me on tumblr and I could just took it and ran with it. Usually it's the male that goes off to war, correct? Well this time, it's the female. And I assure you, this has a happy ending, dammit.

This is a non-linear story.

This is dedicated to one amazing cheerleader who has bent over backwards to help me, the amazing Esmeralda312. Merry Christmas sweetheart.

Special thanks to damonsgrimoire for making the lovely cover.

Song suggestions: _'10,000 Miles' by Mary Chapin Carpenter_  
_ 'Skinny Love' by Birdy_  
_ 'Have a Little Faith In Me' by John Hiatt_

* * *

.

.

Bonnie Bennett is six years old when her mother leaves her with her grandmother, promises of bringing back ice cream and balloons.

She never sees her again.

She's eight years old when she learns that her mother had committed suicide on the train tracks. When she hears the news, she cries herself to sleep that night, cuddled safely in her grandmother's arms. She wakes up wondering if there was something, anything at all that she could have done to save her.

She goes back to second grade a few days after her mother's death. Her Grams walks her to school and pulls the teacher aside, quietly explaining to her what happened and that is the reason why she missed school. She catches her teacher's sympathetic glances and chooses to ignore them.

It hurts enough already.

* * *

Bonnie Bennett is twenty seven years old when she joins the US Air Force. She is assigned to a hospital unit in Afghanistan to head up a nursing staff.

She finds herself sitting in the porch swing of her childhood home, her fingers twined through her husband's as she watches her Grams stare out into the neighbor's yard.

The news wasn't something she ever looked forward to breaking to her Grams.

She shifts a bit closer to Damon as her eyes trace her grandmother's stiffened back. She can practically hear each rattling breath as it escapes her lips.

"How can you be okay with this, Damon?" Sheila finally whispers, her back still to them.

Bonnie feels Damon straighten beside her, his fingers tightening around hers.

"I'm not. I am the farthest from being okay with this," Damon says slowly, choosing his words carefully. "But it's not my decision. I can't stop her from doing it."

That's when Sheila turns around at last, her green eyes so like Bonnie's moist with unshed tears.

Bonnie feels her stomach roll over, fighting the urge to vomit. She hates, absolutely _hates _seeing her grandmother unhappy-let alone in tears. She had dreaded this with everything she had and with good reason.

"Damon, can I speak with Bonnie alone for a moment, please?" Sheila asks him.

Her husband nods, rising to his feet. "I'll be in the kitchen," Damon says, bringing Bonnie's fingers to his lips for a quick moment before he disappears through the slightly ajar front door.

* * *

"How's it going out there?" comes his brother's greeting once he reaches the kitchen.

Damon sighs softly, accepting the mug of tea that Caroline presses into his hand.

"I don't want her to go," he states simply, not meeting his brother's gaze. "I never wanted her to do this."

* * *

A long day at school and an even longer soccer practice sent an exhausted ten year old Bonnie traipsing home around six in the evening. Her grams was waiting dinner for her and she had a lot of homework that was due the very next morning. Even for third grade, it was a lot of work and she was tired and hungry and in just a plain old bad mood.

The small girl shifts her soccer bag tighter over her shoulder just as she hears a shout.

"_Doc! Doc, what are you doing?! Doc, get down!" _

Bonnie brushes a dark lock of hair off her shoulder as she draws nearer to the voice. It's soon joined by another voice.

"_Doc, you stupid cat!" _

Aw crap.

Bonnie arrives at a small clearing marked by two very tall oak trees and a house that stands at three stories high, proudly magnificent and majestic.

The Salvatore mansion.

Bonnie walks by that house every day on her way too and from school. She's heard her Grams speak about the Salvatores a few times but she's hardly had anything nice to say about old man Salvatore. Not that Bonnie could defend him too much. She had seen the bruises on his son Damon's face.

Damon and Stefan were Giuseppe Salvatore's sons. Their mother Antonia had died when Stefan was about two years old, having been severely weakened by his birth due to having some sort of illness with a long funny word that Bonnie didn't really understand.

Stefan was in her third grade class while Damon was in seventh. Her friend Caroline had the biggest crush on Stefan and had already declared that they were 'planning a June wedding'. Bonnie just shook her head and smiled at her bubbly friend's declaration. Lord knew what could actually happen.

She didn't know too much about Damon though. She had heard Caroline and their friend Katherine talk about Mr. Salvatore getting meaner after Mrs. Salvatore died and Bonnie could guess what that meant. She had seen Damon come to school with a black eye one time. But-

"_Doc, you dumb cat!" _

"_Stop calling him dumb! Go up there and get him down!" _

Stefan and Damon Salvatore are standing underneath the biggest tree on the land. Stefan has already climbed half way up the oak's trunk but can't seem to get higher. Damon is yanking on his foot, glancing hastily over his shoulder.

Peering closer, Bonnie can see a bright orange and white cat sitting on a high branch, mewing pitifully like there was no tomorrow.

"Stefan?"

Stefan turns his head so quickly he nearly topples out of the tree. Damon manages to yank on his leg one last time and catches him before he plummets to the ground.

"I think Father would be a little bit more angry about you getting stuck up in the tree than that cat," he snaps, ignoring his brother's large puppy eyes before beginning to stalk back towards the house.

Bonnie can't help her smile when she sees that look.

"I'll get him down, Stefan," she says, dropping her soccer bag and her bookbag to the ground. "It's okay."

Damon freezes in his make for the house.

"Are you sure, Bonnie?" Stefan asks her. "It's high."

"You are an idiot, Bonnie Bennett," Damon's voice causes Bonnie's head to snap up. She glowers in his direction and waves a hand.

"Get over here and give me a step up," she says.

Surprisingly enough, he obeys. Seconds later, she's crawling up the side of the tree like a cat herself. Her fingers latch onto a hunk of soft orange and white fur and after another moment, a very fat, very mouthy cat is back in Stefan's arms while she shimmies back down the trunk.

Just as that pale white hand clasps hers, she finds herself looking into a pair of cerulean grey eyes.

"Why couldn't you climb up there yourself?" she asks.

As Damon opens his mouth to answer, Stefan cuts in.

"He's afraid of heights."

"Stefan!"

"Well, it's the truth."

Bonnie hides a smile behind her hand as she watches Damon try to look menacing towards his little brother and failing miserably. Stefan just ignores him and turns back towards Bonnie, his large green eyes wide with an understanding that is impossible for a ten year old.

"Thank you for saving Doc, Bonnie," Stefan says. With that, and the innocence of that child that he is but not for very much longer, he turns and begins walking back towards the mansion.

Damon and Bonnie watch him go, left in that awkward silence that Damon absolutely hated. Damon finally allows himself to look at Bonnie after a moment.

"Yeah, well, same goes for me," he manages. And with that, he follows his brother back to the house.

Bonnie just shakes her head sadly.

"You're welcome."

* * *

"Bonnie! Hey, Bonnie, are you home?!"

He whirls around the corner of the doorway of their bedroom and freezes.

Bonnie is standing in front of the floor length mirror, clad in her military fatigues. And even though he hates to admit it, she's _hot. _

"Well, hello there ma'am. Why do I have the sudden urge to salute you?"

Bonnie sighs softly, her fingers already threading the buttons on her jacket. "Don't start, Damon."

"I'm not starting anything," her husband replies, sliding closer in such a way that it reminded her of a rooster getting ready to meet his mate behind the henhouse. "You are just so-"

"-the boss in this uniform?" Bonnie finishes.

Damon laughs. "I like that." Those stupid grey eyes of his drift to her lips. "I like bossy."

A snort escapes her lips. "You're such a jackass."

"Hey, it's my best side," Damon says before he snakes his arms around her waist and lightly tosses her giggling body back onto the bed.

* * *

The car accident happens on a chilly November evening.

Bonnie vaguely remembered coming out of the restaurant with Caroline's arm around her waist and Lexi's arm looped through hers. Katherine, who has had a few too many cocktails, is propped up on Lexi's other shoulder. Lagging behind them are Stefan, Alaric, Matt, and Damon, making wisecracks about something stupid that Bonnie doesn't even really care about.

It was Stefan and Caroline's joint birthday party. Their birthdays were within four days of each other's so ever since the two of them got together, it turned into a big birthday bash that everyone clearly enjoyed.

After a hideous and hysterically bad horror film to which they all threw popcorn at the screen, they would go out to dinner and stuff their faces. Everyone paid except the birthday boy and girl and that was enough. It was a time to have fun, spend time together as friends and a family.

"Okay guys, we'll see you back at the house!" Lexi calls as she slips her arm out of Bonnie's to catch a still cackling Katherine before she stumbles to the ground.

"See ya, Lex!" Stefan calls back as Damon drags him to his Camaro.

Yeah, there had been a bit of alcohol consumed by the birthday boy too.

"Okay, everybody in. Bonnie, can you help me get Drunky buckled into the back?"

"Sure," Bonnie laughs. She catches Katherine's flopping arm and helps Lexi lift the tall brunette right off her feet and into the back of the SUV. They slap Katherine's flopping hands away as they buckle her in and then Bonnie slides in beside her. "God, I feel like I'm taking care of a four year old."

Lexi laughs. "I know. She's always been a very happy drunk."

Rain begins to spatter down about twenty minutes after they pull out of the parking lot. Alaric's truck's tail lights are ahead of them, another set of headlights close behind them.

"Damn it, this guy won't back off," Lexi murmurs, glancing in the rearview mirror for the millionth time.

"Don't pay attention to him, pay attention to the road," Caroline interjects, pointing at the windshield.

Lexi's blue eyes focus once again. Then it happens.

Just like that.

"Lexi, maybe you better pull over and let this jackass go by," Bonnie says, glancing behind them through the back window. Katherine is snoring softly beside her, oblivious to the world.

"Maybe you're right," Lexi says. The turn signal goes on and she begins to pull the car to the side.

Only...

The guy behind them hit's the horn and blasts by at what seems like a hundred miles an hour. It's at the brief moment, the stillness there, that it does happen.

The driver loses control of his car and sideswipes the girls. Lexi's hands claw at the wheel, trying to find some kind of balance but it's too late.

Caroline's screaming, Katherine's waking up, and Bonnie's just holding on.

Then everything goes dark.

Maybe it was ten minutes, or ten hours later when Bonnie finally opened her eyes again. Through slitted eyelids, she sees red and blue flashing lights.

And blood.

There's so much blood.

"_Bonnie! Bonnie, can you hear me?" _

Someone's calling her name.

Sleep weighs heavily on her eyelids.

She's so tired.

And then she sees Lexi.

It takes her a moment before she realizes that they are upside down. She wonders for a moment why and then...then it all comes back.

"_Bonnie..." _

Her name is being called again. So damn far away.

Her eyes struggle to focus again, taking in Lexi's state. Her head is pressed into the roof of the car, blood matting her long blond braid. She's so still. Too still.

"L-Lexi?" she mumbles, her voice choking her throat. She coughs once and is alarmed to see a slight spray of red on her fingers.

Her eyes dart to the side and see Caroline already awake, wrestling with her seatbelt. Bonnie hits her hard on the shoulder and points towards the buckle. Together, they break the clasp and Caroline slumps against the ceiling.

"Can you move?" Bonnie asks her. Her answer is Caroline kicking out the side window. "Get out. Get help."

"What about you?" Caroline asks. Her eyes dart to the small dribble of blood coming from the corner of Bonnie's lips.

"I'm fine. Just get help."

Caroline begins to shimmy out the window, feet first. Bonnie's eyes go back to the unconscious Katherine beside her. Her fingers feel for a pulse and she lets out a sigh of relief, feeling the steady thumping of her lifeforce beneath her fingertips.

"Alcohol does help," Bonnie whispers.

"_Bonnie!" _

Her name is being called again. Stronger this time.

Bonnie's attention goes back to the still out Lexi. That steady stream of blood that is trickling down her scalp is coming from a hole that is at least three inches.

"Damn it, Lexi," Bonnie mutters, feeling for a pulse. There is one but weak. "Lexi!"

She lets out a scream when the window on the other side is bashed open, a heavily gloved hand reaching in to jiggle with the door. She watches for a second as those hands are joined by yellow covered arms, followed by a face.

"Ma'am, you ok?"

A fireman.

"I'm fine. Help her!"

And then he grabs Katherine, gently and delicately pulling her out through the now open door after cutting her seatbelt.

"Damn it!" Bonnie looks around wildly, another cough building up in her throat. "Lexi, come on!" She's not sure exactly what to do. Lexi's in so much trouble, probably dying and she's totally helpless.

She has to save her.

"_BONNIE!" _

Damon?

She feels again for a pulse, finding it even weaker than before.

"Lexi, hold on," she murmurs, brushing her fingers against her bloody cheek. That dull thud of life begins to fade. "Lexi, please!"

And then...nothing.

"_Lexi!" _

Strong arms are suddenly around her, pulling her up and out of the wreckage. She continues to scream out, Lexi's name dying on her lips as she is cradled like she weighs no more than a baby, passed into someone's arms.

"Bonnie, you're okay. It's okay."

Damon. Damon's arms.

"_She's gone." _

Tears finally welled up in her eyes as she heard the paramedic's words. No matter what Damon tried to do, those words would live with her forever.

"I-I couldn't save her," she breathes as she finds herself falling into the silvery pools that are Damon's eyes.

* * *

Katherine shoves the letter right under her nose as soon as the two women are out of earshot in the hallway.

"Are you out of your mind?!"

It takes Bonnie a second before she realizes what her best friend is holding.

Her letter of registration for the air force.

"Where did you get this?" Bonnie asks, making sure to keep her tone cool.

"That doesn't matter, Bonnie," Katherine snaps. "How could you do this?!"

"I don't think that's any of your business, Katherine," Bonnie replies quickly in a hurried whispered tone. "It's my life. It's my decision."

"You share your life now with Damon!" Katherine scowls. "Does he know that you did this?" When she sees her friend's downcast eyes, her own brown ones widen in surprise. "He doesn't. Your own husband doesn't know that you joined the air force."

"It happened after I got the nursing promotion," Bonnie says.

"That was-"

"Six months ago, I know," Bonnie cuts across Katherine's words. "Listen to me, Katherine. This is something that I have to do. It's my job. My life."

Katherine tries to cut in again but Bonnie holds up a hand to silence her. It's when Katherine grabs that hand that Bonnie lets her speak once again.

"Bonnie, you can't save everyone," she whispers, tears starting to bloom in her eyes. "You already do so much at that hospital. You help so many people."

Bonnie swallows hard against the lump that is rising in her throat, her own tears already falling.

She swipes at them with the back of one hand, peering up at her friend. "It's something that I have to do."

* * *

She wakes up in the hospital to find Damon curled up by her side and her grandmother dozing in a chair by the bed. Damon bolts awake immediately at her merest movement, his fingers brushing the hair off of her forehead.

"How are you feeling?" he whispers, not daring to raise his voice for fear of waking Sheila.

Bonnie wonders for a moment. She cannot remember what really happened or why she is here. All she can feel is this dull ache in her heart that will not go away.

"I hurt," she whispers after a second, tears burning behind her eyes. His thumb catches one as it falls. "I really hurt." A tiny sob escapes.

Damon's own eyes are filled with so much grief that she can practically feel. The mere hours old memory of Alaric and Matt holding onto a screaming Stefan haunting him for the rest of his life.

"She didn't suffer, did she?" Bonnie asks softly, another tear falling.

Damon shrugs a shoulder, his arm slipping back around her own. He buries his nose in her shoulder for a brief moment, kissing at a bruise on her collarbone.

"She never regained consciousness."

That's answer enough.

Bonnie finally lets her tears go. They slide hot and wet into her hair, unable to be stopped by however many of Damon's kisses and touches.

"I should have saved her," she cries softly as she is pulled into his embrace. "I should have saved her."

* * *

She says goodbye to him on an early September morning.

They stand on the edge of the gangplank, entwined so tightly in each other's arms it's like they are trying to meld into one person.

Bonnie finally pulls away from Damon's embrace to clasp her own hands together. She twists her rings around her fourth finger for a second before she pulls them right off and presses them into Damon's right hand.

"You'll take care of these for me, right?"

Damon raises a brow. "Really?" he says.

Bonnie chuckles softly. "Of course you will."

Damon doesn't return the laugh, his throat already tightening up. He looks over the top of Bonnie's head, trying to focus on something. Anything.

Her hand in his pulls him back.

"Hey," she whispers. "Look at me." When he does, her hands goes to his cheek. "I'm coming back, okay?"

"You better," Damon murmurs. "Because I swear to god, I will track your skinny ass down and-"

Her mouth silences his.

* * *

He waits until he is in his car and her plane has taken off before he gives in to his tears.

* * *

Two days after the wedding, Bonnie comes home from work to find a darkened house. Only one light is on in the kitchen.

"Damon?" Bonnie calls as she walks down the hallway, beckoned by the one light like a moth to a flame. "Damon, are you home?"

"I'm in here."

His voice is so calm. Too calm.

Bonnie turns the corner and walks into the kitchen. She sees him leaning against the long counter, his back to her. An open bottle of wine sits beside him.

And then she sees it.

The same letter that Katherine had practically shoved in her face two nights ago.

"Oh, my god." Her shoulder bag falls from her fingers and to the other end of the counter, her eyes tracing every crevice of that worn out white paper. "Oh, god."

"You can say that again," Damon replies, his back still to her. "What a nice bit of information to come across two nights after you've been married."

"Damon-"

"Where you ever going to tell me?" Damon snaps, finally turning around. "Or was I just going to wake up one day and find you gone, huh?"

"Damon, I was going to tell you," Bonnie says, glancing up into her husband's face. "But now is not the time. Especially now."

"Oh, right," Damon says sarcastically. "Of course not. Not right after our wedding."

"Damon-"

"I had a right to know!" he shouts, slamming his fist down on the counter. The wine bottle shakes underneath the pressure. "You should have told me that you were going to do this!"

"Why, so you could talk me out of it?"

"You're damn right!" He says. "This is the stupidest, absolutely most ridiculous thing you could have done!"

"It's something I have to do, Damon!" Bonnie shouts back, finally finding her voice.

With something that looks suspiciously like tears in his eyes, Damon turns back around, his arms folded so tightly around himself that it looks like he will never be able to disentangle them again.

Bonnie doesn't dare try to touch him but she does continue to speak. "It's something I need to do. I can't explain why. But it isn't going to be for very long."

"How can you know that?" Damon asks. "You may only have an eighteen month tour but they'll get you to stay."

Bonnie shakes her head. "No. Because that will be it. Not while I have so much to come home too."

"You have me!" Damon snaps. His back muscles tighten. "But then again... I am not enough, am I?"

"What? How can you say that?"

Damon turns to look at her once again, his hand shifting the wine bottle out of the way. The low light catches on his silver wedding band.

"Ever since I've known you, ever since you pulled Stefan's ugly old cat out of the tree, you've needed to save everything and everyone around you. For the first few months that we were dating I felt like a damn science project."

"Damon-"

He holds up his hand to silence her. "I guess I should have known this was going to happen after Lexi died. You almost killed yourself trying to save her and-and she still died. It didn't matter how many times your grandmother or I told you it wasn't your fault, you were just so damn stubborn."

Bonnie can't help it. She starts to laugh. "Well, I guess we're are one in the same, Damon Salvatore."

"Bonnie, don't try to be funny-"

"I am not trying to be funny," Bonnie cuts in. "I am trying to get you to understand why I am doing this. I am trying to get you to understand that this isn't permanent. That I am coming home." She begins to slowly walk towards him, unbuttoning her heavy sweater as she moves. "And if you love me, you will accept this."

Damon's grey eyes harden even darker than before. "That's a low blow and you know it."

"Damon-"

And then he's kissing her like he's never kissed her before.

They break apart when they both need to breathe again (which isn't for several seconds), their foreheads resting against each other's.

"I don't like this," Damon murmurs, pressing his lips to her forehead. His eyes are suspiciously shiny. "I don't like this at all."

"I'm coming back," Bonnie mutters softly. "I'm coming back to you."

* * *

"What about you, Bennett? Do you have a special someone at home?"

A nineteen hour day and this is where Bonnie found herself; in a tent with three other nurses, steadily getting as drunk as she can.

The question came from a nurse by the name of Porter Crosetti. Bonnie had bonded with him her first day in the camp. Crosetti had shown her the ropes, had helped ease her into the position of head nurse. The hospital had just been put together and everyone was still trying to get into the flow of things. It was frightening, to say the truth. All of it was.

What surprised her the most is how many patients they received. She never really thought about how many people would be in and out of that hospital day in and day out but now-now it was real. All of it was so real.

Today had been a bit of a rough day. Bonnie had assisted another doctor in surgery for three hours, caring for a pilot who had been shot down and his spinal cord detached totally. Somehow, sheesh, somehow this doctor had been able to reattach it and the pilot had been saved. He was already showing movement in his toes.

That, in itself, was a miracle.

"Bennett? Are you still here?"

"Huh?"

Crosetti's gentle voice pulls her back to planet Earth. Bonnie glances at her friend and manages a tired smile.

"Sorry, Crosetti."

"How about you?" he asks again, his eyes soft. "Anyone special at home? I don't see a wedding ring."

Out of reflex, Bonnie's eyes dart to her left hand.

"As a matter of a fact, I'm married. I left my rings with my husband so nothing would happen to them."

"What's your husband like?" asks Kimberly, another nurse. She lets out a loud hiccup, her eyes already glazing over. Sasha Bretton, Bonnie's assistant head nurse reaches over and snatches the beer bottle out of her hand.

"I think that's enough for you," she says, ignoring Kimberly's squawk of annoyance.

"Nah, you don't want to hear about him," Bonnie says.

"Balderdash," Crosetti says.

"We should be hearing more about your wife," she replies. "Come on, Crosetti."

"I've already bragged about my wife."

Sasha laughs aloud, grabbing away another beer bottle that Kimberly is trying to sneak. "Oh, come on, Porter. You brag about her like she is the freaking president of the United States."

Bonnie laughs too as the playful arguing begins again. She's found her own little tight knit family here, even though it will never be the same as home.

Home was where her heart as.

God, that's cheesy.

But the truth.

* * *

"What are you going to try to do, outskirt me at the airport? It would kind of hard to miss me."

"Will you be wearing a red hat?" Bonnie says playfully, quirking an eyebrow. She ignores Crosetti as he faux gags into the garbage bin.

"Do I look like Kirsten Dunst?" Damon groans. She can practically hear his smirk.

Bonnie laughs softly. "On occasion."

"Ha-ha."

* * *

Home.

Snowflakes.

Christmas lights.

It had never looked so wonderful before.

It's hard for Bonnie not to headlong run down the gangplank as it's lowered. The plane trip had been a near fourteen hours but she had been way too keyed up to sleep. She thinks that it was the same for everyone because not a single person had been sleeping on the ride back.

People are milling about by the gate as she assembles through. Wives screeching in happiness as they run at their husbands, children crying out for their parents who had finally returned home for Christmas, parents holding onto their kids and never letting go.

Bonnie scans the crowd for a familiar raven haired head, standing on her tiptoes and nearly tripping over a young light haired woman.

"Oof, I'm so sorry!" she apologizes, steadying the girl with a gentle hand on her shoulder. It's then that she notices her huge pregnant belly. "Can I help you find someone?"

The girl casts huge blue eyes in her direction. "Yes, I can't find my husband. He's supposed to be on this flight."

"Who's your husband?"

"Porter Crosetti."

Bonnie hides a smile behind her gloved hand. "I know where he is. Let me take you to him."

Together the two young women creep through the large crowd of people. Bonnie keeps one protective arm around the younger woman's shoulders, her eyes glancing around.

"Crosetti! I have something that belongs to you!"

Her redheaded pal manages to pry himself away from another man in uniform, turning around and letting out a whoop of joy that could be heard in Texas. Bonnie laughs and steps back as Crosetti wraps his arms around his wife and swings her around in a tight embrace.

Just as she turns, she sees him.

He looks like she remembers him. Well, not much could have changed in eight months but he's him. Still in that ugly black leather jacket that she secretly hates, his hair stuck up all over his head like Harry Potter. The only thing that's different is a loose red scarf is looped around his neck.

Bonnie slowly walks towards him, pulling her hair out of it's tight clip. Her dark locks fall down her back, almost flying behind her as she begins a run. She doesn't even worry about it because she knows Damon's arms will be there to catch her.

His arms are so familiar. So strong.

And that's when the whole world makes sense once again.

His arms loosen from around her and go to his own neck. He unwinds the red scarf and loosely loops it around her neck, pulling her in. That first kiss, that first kiss in nearly nine months, is something else.

"Let's go home," he whispers.

* * *

'_When your secret heart  
__Cannot speak so easily  
__Come here darlin', from a whisper start  
__To have a little bit of faith in me'_

The gentle music fills the ball room and Bonnie feels a soft sigh leave her lips. Damon's hands rest on her waist, his fingertips caressing the roses that are embroidered into the lining. They begin to work an even gentler pattern into her skin, almost lulling her to sleep right there on the dance floor.

"What's on your mind, Mrs. Salvatore?" Damon whispers, his lips just a breath's away from her ear.

Bonnie sighs again, her arms tightening around Damon's waist. She presses her nose into shoulder, breathing in that perfect scent of musk and just a hint of lavender. Has he been using her body wash?

"Nothing," she lies just as she catches Katherine's eyes from across the ball room. "Just enjoying a moment."

"Our first moments," he replies cheesily.

Bonnie smiles, rolling her eyes. "Yes. Our first moments."

* * *

She startles slightly at the coolness as the rings touch her finger.

Damon gentle slips the emerald ring onto her fourth finger first, followed by the simple golden band. Their own fingers twine together, their wedding rings catching the light off of the dancing fire that burns just a few feet away.

"Two weeks is not long enough," he murmurs.

"I have to go back, Damon."

"I could just lock you in the closet and not let you go."

Bonnie just shakes her head, the whisper of a smile on her lips that fades quite quickly.

"I'll come back."

"I know."

**.**

**.**

* * *

**Okay, so this is part one. **

**Christmas present for the amazing Nisha (esmeralda312). I was originally going to write it as one long part but I wanted to have it posted before Christmas so I divided it into two. I really hope to have part 2 posted soon. **

**Anyway, I worked really hard on this so please leave me your opinion. I hope you enjoyed and don't worry, there WILL be a happy ending. **

**Have the best Christmas, my beautiful Bamily. Stay safe and god bless. **


End file.
